In the first line quoted above you wrote the Dojo, but it seems that the Doshu would make more sense. However, if this is the case, the buck stops further back, with Morihei Ueshiba himself. As you know, Budo (1938) is a training manual with 50 different waza, compiled at the request of the Japanese military, to be taught to Japanese soldiers. I do not think these wartime 'Cliff Notes' could be called aikido-lite. In addition, one of the more interesting discussions that Ellis Amdur conducts in Hidden in Plain Sight is that Ueshiba himself reduced the number of Aiki(budo) waza from the plethora of Daito-ryu waza, in order to allow aiki(budo) to remove the kasu sediment from the body more effectively, which he also called misogi. I had always thought that Kisshomaru Ueshiba did this, but, after reading HIPS, I am not so sure.

Best wishes,

PAG

Hello Peter,

Just some of my thoughts. If they're any help, great.

When Ueshiba first met Takeda, it's very unlikely that Ueshiba would have been taught aiki at that first seminar. Not impossible, just unlikely. We know there were 2 more 10 day seminars to follow. So, there is a slight possibility that Ueshiba either was taught aiki exercises or was astute enough to "steal" some.

In 1916, we have more training with Takeda. We have to assume that jujutsu techniques were taught along with aiki:

1.Because Ueshiba knew the techniques. A lot of them. In an interview, Mochizuki wonders why Ueshiba trimmed down the Daito ryu techniques.

and

2. If Ueshiba had not started some sort of aiki training in 1915-1916, then he would never have progressed so much in 1922. Ueshiba's daunting phsyical strength was a large detriment to the start of building aiki. So, by 1922, he had to have progressed enough such that Takeda could make a martial giant out of Ueshiba that year.

We also know that Ueshiba started learning from Deguchi around 1920.

By the time Ueshiba opened the Kobukan dojo in 1931, he had at least 9 years of merging Daito ryu aiki and Omoto spirituality/misogi/etc.

I think Ueshiba was *still* working out and building aiki in his body (building aiki in the body can be done separate from techniques) in those Kobukan years plus he had all the demand for "technique" driven jujutsu. I think that's why the prewar students got something. Ueshiba was still working on some aspects of aiki within jujutsu driven techniques. But for other aspects of aiki, he had merged his spirituality and even the prewar students didn't understand him.

And while working out and merging his aiki with spirituality, I think he tossed out things (techniques) that he didn't think he needed. I think that he took the Daito ryu concept of it being a formless art and merged that with his spirituality such that only a fraction of Daito ryu techniques were really needed by him to showcase his "Aikido".